A prowl through words reveals the unstable character of the cosmos.
With entries as varied as ‘elbow’, ‘Ophelia’, ‘progress’, the painter Giorgio Morandi, ‘chess’, ‘Eulalia’ (a friend of the author’s aunt), and ‘unicorn’, Ida Vitale constructs a dictionary of her long and passionately engaged artistic life. Taking the reader by the arm, she invites us to become her confidant, sharing her remarkable 20th century as a member of a storied generation of Latin American writers, of whom she is the last remaining alive. It’s a compendium of friendship, travel, reading, and the endless opportunities she found for ‘the joyful possibility of creation.’ Like every dictionary, Lexicon of Affinities seeks to impose order on chaos, even if in its exuberant, whimsical profusion it lays bare the unstable character of the cosmos.
About the author
Sean Manning is a translator from Spanish and French. He has translated numerous works by such authors as Carlos Pereda, Eduardo Lalo, Édouard Glissant, Gabriela Polit Dueñas, Azahara Palomeque, and Ricardo Piglia. His translation of Ida Vitale’s Byobu (Charco Press, 2021) was shortlisted for the 2022 Queen Sofía Spanish Institute Prize. His work has also appeared in Asymptote , Exchanges , Azona L , The Common , and Review . He has a Ph D in Spanish and Latin American literature from the University of Texas at Austin, where he is currently a Lecturer teaching courses on language, literature, and writing.
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